Holy crap, my kid cracks me up!!!!

Gracia has a toy cell phone. She's had it for a while but, in digging through her toy box, has recently rediscovered it. It has made her day and, subsequently, mine. It has a place to record on it and I recorded the message "Hi Gracia! How are you?" She then spent about 5 minutes pusing the button to hear the message and then responding appropriately to it!

This evening after supper she resumed her play time with it. This phone also has the feature that when you close it to "hang up" it gives you about 5 seconds and then rings 3 times. She came running to answer it from wherever she was every time it rang again. After about 5 times, the "conversations" got decidedly shorter and more clipped. After about 8 times, when it rang again, she gave this huge sigh and glared at the phone when she came it get it! I couldn't help myself! I laughed out loud!! Funny, funny stuff!

Too darn cute!!

Not much happening, just a few things here and there that I find amusing and feel that I should share with you.

Gracia has taken to admonishing Gus (our youngest cat) for no reason. I'll be doing something and she's out of sight and suddenly I can hear her saying "No no! Noooo, no nonono! No no!" When I come out to see what's going on, she's inevitably shaking her finger at Gus. He's usually doing something as dangerous as lying peacefully on the floor albeit in her way. Cracks me up! At least she's not yelling at her brother... yet.

Gracia's other newest phrase is "of course!" We have no idea where she picked it up, but she usually uses it correctly and it, too, is hilarious! I'll aske things like "Did you know you're my favorite girl?" To which she replies, "Of course!"
- "Do you need more to drink?" "Of course!"
- "Did you know that you make me crazy when you whine?" "Well of course!"

And just to brag a bit, she's not yet two (in two weeks though... how did that happen????) and she knows all of her letters and her numbers up to 12. I'm going to go ahead and think that's impressive.

Jack is getting a real personality and is smiling all the time. He is increadibly nosy and wants to watch things all the time. He loves his activity mat and his bumbo seat and can easily spend 45 minutes playing between the two of them. He's starting to realize that his hands belong to him and is now trying to figure out how to get them to do what he wants all the time.

Gracia continues to like Jack, and likes to love on him. It's really cute. Again, I'm relishing it now, because as soon as he starts touching her stuff I know it will be all over!

Let me leave you with a few pictures to prove that she does like him. I'm not so sure he's terribly fond of her yet, though...

Never Again...

Well, I say never, but I know that that will never happen. I took the kids to Target yesterday. I thought we were in a good time... it was an hour before nap time, Jack had just eaten and both kids were dry. The car trip (the whole 7 minutes) were fine. So was the walk to the store and the first 3 minutes that we were inside. Then it went to hell. I was one of those parents that you look at and think "why did she think this was a good idea?" Jack howled and nothing would fix it, and Gracia decided she was going to be Miss Independent (I know... welcome to two) and refused to hold on to the cart or hold my hand. Not necessarily a horrible thing except that she wanted to lag about 15 feet behind me and in the center of the aisle, which meant that no one could get around her! That meant that I had to get ahold of her arm (because she wouldn't let me touch her hands) and drag her, protesting loudly, over by me. I couldn't put her in the cart because Jack was in the seat and I couldn't put her in the basket of the cart because it was full of the big awkward things that we needed!

GACK!!

So, if I can at all avoid it, I shall not be taking both kids to the store by myself again. Oh! And just to finish my rant, where are the carts that will hold two young children at the same time when I need them? I see them all the time when I just have one kid with me, but when I bring both? Never there!! I think they see me coming and hide them.

Well, now that that is all out of the way, let me say some good things about my darling children. Jack has slept through the night for two nights now, and I'm hoping that this will continue. Makes me feel human to have 7 hours of sleep in a row! And Gracia is a fabulous big sister. She's very nice to him and worries about him and it's increadibly cute. I'm relishing while I can get it!

Here's a little video so you can see just how cute she is with him!

A new start!

Okay... I know that I started one of these before and I failed miserably at it. I'm starting this new one with a far more realistic approach. Notice the title! Cannon Family Chaos... I think that should say it all. Our life is chaotic, get used to it. Hopefully I'll be on here a little more often (that shouldn't be too hard...) and just post family updates and pictures. I think I can handle that. Not as much creativity involved!

Let's see... Gracia is getting ready to turn two and I think that "terrible twos" are increadibly accurate. Shes two going on 15... yippee. On the days that she's not possessed by horrible demons, she's a charming wonderful little girl and I'm impressed and awed by her. I'm also horribly scared... how can something that little be that smart already?? I watch her calculate things in her head. I'm screwed, I know.

Jack just turned 4 months and is officially on the charts for a 4 month old baby on all aspects. He's 20th percentile in weight for 4 months and is 5th percentile in head and height for 4 months. The doctors are thrilled at how he's coming along. So are we for that matter. Gracia adores him and worries about him every time he cries. It's kinda cute... until she's in his room as I'm trying to put him down for a nap screaming "BABY!" and wanting to see what I'm doing. He usually wakes up at that point and, well, I do a lot of sighing.

I'm fairly certain I'm surviving being the mother of two, so that bodes well. I'm looking into hiring a sitter for a couple hours a day, 2-3 days a week so that I can remember what it's like to be me and not just Mom. I'm hoping that will also let me appreciate my children even more. I've got a great lead on a girl from Jacksonville that's going to college here in Naperville and she's really excited about the prospect of watching the two of them. WOO HOO. Oh yes... woo hoo.

Dad just finished building the room on the garage today and it's BEAUTIFUL! I'm so impressed at the work he does. I'm so excited to have such a nice guest room for people to come and stay in. Makes me feel less stressed about people coming to stay, so that's nice too. However, I will have to say that after 4 1/2 months straight of having some other adult staying in our house, I am also excited to NOT have a guest. I'm ready to just have some family time for a bit. I'm sure that I'll be ready for people by the time the holidays roll around (thank heavens 'cause those are rushing right upon us!) but I'm eager for things to be "normal" for just a bit!

Jeromy is still working at Mayer Brown and thinks that the economy is releasing its strangle hold on the work he does, so hopefully he'll start getting a little more coming in. He'll be starting his 4th year there.... now. Wow. I was going to say the middle of October, but that's now! Crazy.

All in all, we're doing well here. Flourishing if I'm really thinking about it. That's a nice feeling.

Here are some pictures of life here! Hope you all enjoy the new, laid-back blog!